Cadi Ayyad University

Polydisciplinary Faculty of Safi

Department of English Studies
Academic Year 2024/2025
Semester 3
Module: Extensive Reading
Pr. Mohammed Saissi

Section VI:
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

I. Edgar Allan Poe: A short biography.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, best
known for his macabre and gothic tales of mystery and horror. Born in Boston, Poe was
orphaned at a young age and raised by the Allan family in Richmond, Virginia, from whom
he took his middle name. Despite a promising start at the University of Virginia, financial
difficulties and disagreements with his foster family led him to leave school. He briefly
served in the military but focused on his writing career.

Poe gained early recognition with poems such as "The Raven," which brought him
widespread fame. He is also credited with pioneering the detective fiction genre through
stories like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Poe's works often explore themes of death,
love, madness, and the supernatural, combining vivid imagery with psychological depth.

Throughout his life, Poe struggled with poverty and personal loss, including the death of his
wife, Virginia Clemm. He died at the age of 40 under mysterious circumstances, leaving a
lasting legacy that continues to influence literature, film, and popular culture. Poe is
considered a master of the short story and a central figure in American Romanticism.
 II. Summary.

The story begins with an anonymous narrator who admits to being anxious but not insane. He
intends to justify his sanity while confessing to a murder. The motive wasn't greed or passion, but
the unsettling fear of the old man's pale blue eye. He insists his actions were calculated, not the
work of a madman. Night after night, he secretly watched the old man sleep, then acted normally
the next day. After a week of this surveillance, he impulsively decided to kill the old man.

On the eighth night, the old man awakens and cries out, startling the narrator. The narrator stalks
the frightened man, understanding his fear from his own experiences of nocturnal dread. He hears
the old man's heart pounding loudly, fearing it might alert neighbors. In a fit of panic, he murders
the old man, dismembers the body, and hides the remains beneath the floorboards, meticulously
cleaning the scene.

Just as he finishes, the police arrive, alerted by a neighbor. The narrator, feigning innocence,
leads the officers around the house, even inviting them into the very room where the body lies
hidden. As he sits calmly with the officers, he hears a faint thumping sound - the beating heart of
the victim beneath the floorboards. Driven to madness by the sound and the officers'
obliviousness, he confesses to the crime and demands they unearth the horrifying secret.

III. Analysis.

1. Poe's Stylistic Techniques.

Poe's concise "Tell-Tale Heart" delves into paranoia and mental decline. By stripping away
unnecessary details, Poe intensifies the narrator's obsessive focus on the old man's eye, the
heartbeat, and his own sanity. This minimalist style enhances the narrative's power, perhaps
mirroring the very nature of paranoia. Poe's deliberate use of language makes him a silent
accomplice in the narrator's downfall, much like the relentless heartbeat that ultimately exposes
the truth.

2. The Narrator's Psychological State.

The story reveals the psychological complexities that drive a murderer. The narrator, though
deeply anxious, denies his madness, attributing his heightened senses to sanity rather than illness,
unlike Poe's Roderick Usher. This heightened awareness allows him to meticulously recount his
actions, using the narrative form to plead his case. However, his madness lies in his inability to
recognize the connection between his narrative and his actions. While he masters the form, his
tale inadvertently exposes the very madness he seeks to conceal.

3. Love, Hate, and Obsession.

The story also highlights the tension between love and hate. Poe delves into the psychological
enigma of harming those we love or need, a concept Freud would later explore. The narrator's
love for the old man, devoid of greed or vengeance, eliminates typical murder motives. Instead,
he becomes obsessed with the old man's eye, reducing him to this single feature. The narrator's
desire to separate the man from his "Evil Eye" stems from a twisted logic of sparing him guilt.
However, he fails to realize that the eye is an integral part of the old man's identity, inseparable
from his being.

4. The Dismemberment and its Psychological Implications.

The narrator's murder of the old man highlights his distorted perception of the man's identity. He
sees the eye as separate from the man himself, allowing him to justify the murder while claiming
love for the victim. His obsession with the eye drives the murder, but he fails to acknowledge that
killing the man will eradicate the eye. Dismembering the body further dehumanizes the victim.
By reducing the old man to parts, the narrator reinforces his belief in the eye's separateness.
Ironically, this strategy backfires as his mind conjures the old man's body parts working against
him.

5. The Role of Sound and the Inevitable Confession.

The narrator's heightened sensitivity to sound ultimately becomes his downfall as he struggles to
differentiate between real and imagined noises. Obsessed with the faint heartbeat, he disregards
the loud shrieks that alert a neighbor and bring the police. The police, rather than being
intimidating figures of authority, serve as passive observers. Poe's focus lies not on external
power but on the internal turmoil of the narrator's mind. His paranoia and guilt inevitably lead to
his self-betrayal. The police's arrival provides the opportunity for this self-exposure. The more he
asserts his composure, the more he succumbs to the pounding of his own heart, mistaken for the
victim's. As he confesses, he labels the police as "villains," revealing his inability to distinguish
between their reality and his own guilt.